This demonstration is family friendly and will move at slow walking speed. If anyone needs mobility support for this protest please contact info@tadamon.ca 48 hours in advance and we will do our very best to assist and respond.

Since April 17th, over 1,500 Palestinian political prisoners have undertaken a historic hunger strike within Israeli apartheid prisons- the largest in five years. As the strike enters its fifth week, join us for a demonstration on the streets in Montréal to express our solidarity and support.

Palestinian prisoners have been on strike to demand an end to solitary confinement, heavy restrictions on family visits, medical neglect, and administrative detention – prolonged imprisonment without charge or trial. The strike has been met with considerable repression, including frequent raids, the denial of family and legal visits, the confiscation of blankets and personal belongings, the transfer of prisoners, and the moving of strike leaders into solitary confinement. Israel has refused to negotiate with or discuss the demands of the hunger strikers, referring to the prisoners as terrorists and calling the strike a media ploy.

According to a report on the Electronic Intifada “the Israel Prison Service is attempting to demoralize its participants and their supporters. Israeli media report that the government is considering bringing in foreign doctors to potentially force feed hunger strikers.”

Tadamon! is calling on people to take the streets in Montréal to express their solidarity with Palestinian prisoners, but also to highlight the complicity of multinational corporations like Hewlett Packard (HP), which continues to maintain the servers and other IT infrastructure of the Israeli prison service. We demand that HP end its contracts with Israeli prisons and detention centres, as part of a growing international campaign against HP over its support for Israeli apartheid.

This demonstration also takes place as Québec Premier Phillippe Couillard is visiting Israel from May 19-25 to strengthen economic ties. In addition, the Canadian Liberal government continues to provide unconditional support to the Israeli apartheid state. Importantly, the Liberal government continues to criminalize the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) movement launched by Palestinian organizations to build a global mechanism for groups and organizations to express their concrete solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom.

Additionally this action takes place as people around the world take both individual and community based hunger strike and fasting actions, including in Montréal, to express solidarity with the Palestinian hunger strike within Israeli apartheid prisons.

For detailed reports, updates and ways to support the Palestinian
hunger strike, please visit: http://www.addameer.org/